Safetrac’s employee surveillance is more than a mere privacy breach
While workplace surveillance through laptop mics may fall within legal boundaries in many jurisdictions, the reputational implications for businesses are significant and often underestimated.
Crisis communications expert Sally Branson unpacks the recent case of Safetrac secretly recording its employees.
Safetrac, a Melbourne compliance training company with a broad and impressive client list, was caught secretly recording employees through their laptop microphones while working from home. This represents more than just a privacy breach. It’s a cautionary tale about how surveillance can destroy the very trust and productivity it claims to protect.
From a reputation management perspective, opening up the mics on company laptops and hitting record sends up red flags about organisational culture. When companies resort to covert surveillance of their employees, it fundamentally undermines the trust that should form the foundation of any healthy workplace relationship, and sends signals about the values or culture of a business.
The real risk here isn’t just internal. In today’s hyper-connected world, these practices rarely remain secret. When employees discover they’re being monitored through their laptop cameras and mics, and they inevitably do, it creates a reputational crisis that extends far beyond the workplace.
Does Safetrac’s leadership genuinely practise what they preach — or are they simply profiting from selling a message they don’t live by themselves?
Has the CEO and management team actually completed their own mandatory compliance training?
If they have, why would a company supposedly built on trust and transparency decide covert surveillance was the “right” solution?
And if they haven’t, then the hypocrisy speaks for itself: how can Safetrac sell compliance with any credibility while failing to meet the most basic standard internally?